PAVEL KOYCHEV
23 April 2015 – 31 May 2015

INSPIRATION FROM LAKES AND MOUNTAINS
19 March 2015 – 19 April 2015

This SCAG-hosted exhibition commemorates the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang Province, China. The exhibition is a selection of 107 graphic artworks from the museum’s collection, which showcase contemporary Chinese graphic art. Targeted mainly at foreign viewers with limited knowledge of China’s modern history, the selection of exhibits highlights the development of graphic arts in Zhejiang between the mid-20th century and the present day.

Zhejiang graphic art stands out with its unique historical development and its specific style. Zhejiang, considered to be the cradle of modern Chinese graphic art, has had a sustainable influence on the development of art throughout the whole country. Done in various techniques – from traditional Chinese xylography through to complicated combinations of contemporary means of expression, the graphic artworks present a broad panorama of themes, personal views and public attitudes, thus revealing the specific aesthetics and worldview of art in China.

The exhibition is divided into three parts entitled “Mentality – Impression”, “Humans – Transition” and “Natural Environment – Lifestyle”, which complement each other to build up the figurative ‘Spirit – Individual – Environment’ connection and introduce the viewer to the culture, history and nature of the Zhejiang Province.

Ever since it opened, the Zhejiang Art Museum has singled out the enrichment of its collection of local Chinese graphic artworks as a top priority. The exhibition’s title, “Inspiration From Lakes and Mountains” means to symbolically reveal the benefits of Zhejiang’s geographical location, as well as to make a reference to poetic images deeply ingrained in traditional Chinese culture that provided boundless room for interpretation to generations of artists.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?
12 March 2015 – 19 April 2015

Art is a two-way street. Artists’ works live on through the viewers’ thoughts and feelings. The latter provide a cozy home or an emotional environment for the works’ continuous growth.

Yet, more often than not, artists do not get any feedback. They never become aware of the thoughts their works have provoked, or the way the latter were received and interpreted by the public.

That is why we are inviting you to share your comments, analyses and feelings.

The best responses will be posted on the gallery’s website. Three of you will each get a Sofia City Art Gallery catalogue of your choice.

The visual image has specific features. One of them consists in the endless possibilities it offers. It is this endless space that provides room for a multitude of interpretations. We are curious about your opinions, which will enable us to provide a link between the public and the artists.

We hope that this will be a useful and pleasant experience for you.

The following are some sample questions you could use as reference points:

What is the first thing about the artwork that got your attention?
What is it that keeps you interested in it?
Do you trace any connection between the individual fragments of the artwork, or any connection between the parts within the series of artworks?
Does the artwork remind you of anything – another work, place, person, story, idea or memory?
What element of the artwork brings the memories or the associations?
What feelings does the artwork provoke?
The artworks included in the project belong to the Sofia City Art Gallery collection. They constitute some of the most recent contributions to the departments of Painting, Sculpture, Contemporary Art and Photography. There are works by: Albena Baeva, Andrei Daniel, Atanas Atanasov, Borijana Ventsislavova, Boryana Rossa, Vesa Vassileva, Vladislav Georgiev, Gredy Assa, Zoran Georgiev, Ivo Dimchev, Kamen Starchev, Lazar Lutakov, Nikolay Maistorov, Pavel Koichev, Svetozara Alexandrova, Stanimir Genov, Yana Dimitrova, Yassen Zgurovski.

–
27 January 2015 – 03 March 2015

ART FOR CHANGE 1985-2015
20 January 2015 – 05 March 2015

“Art for Change 1985-2015” is a project tracing the profound changes in Bulgaria’s society since the mid-1980s untill today, as well as artists’ awakened consciousness with regard to their mission as correctives of the social milieu.

By means of an exhibition and a publication, it exposes the process of opening up new opportunities and waking up to art’s potential to impact societal attitudes. The project aims also at restoring and recording this thread in current Bulgarian art while seeking out opportunities to promote and deepen art’s impact over society.

Over the years, Bulgaria’s intellectual elite, and artists in particular, have been blamed for keeping aloof from social processes and for failing to react to developments promptly, sharply and adequately enough. It has been alleged also that their passive stance is a hindrance to the country’s growth and development. Indeed this is the cliché that the project is trying to break by displaying works and documents, which trace crucial moments of the historic transition since the mid-1980s and vindicate artists’ role as an active element of social life. The publication will attempt, for the first time in this country’s recent history, to analyse the relationship between art and society, to seek out the root causes of integration or alienation, to probe deeply and get to the crux of those processes that are at the core of Bulgaria’s society and culture the way they are today.

The exhibition showcases works by contemporary Bulgarian artists, who from the mid 80-is till now have marked with their art profound moments of the transition period and present the artist as an active agent of the social change.

The book comprises 384 pages of analytical texts, interviews and more than 390 reproductions. Its purpose is to present the historical perspective while attempting also to provide insight into current realities through past experiences. The book includes texts my Maria Vassileva, Diana Popova, Boyan Manchev, Georgi
Tenev, Alexander Kiossev and interviews with Svetlin Roussev, Nedko Solakov and Luchezar Boyadjiev in a bilingual format (Bulgarian and English).

Participating artists: Adelina Popndeleva, Alexander Valchev, Alla Georgieva, Atanas Neikov, Boris Missirkov and Georgi Bogdanov, Boryana Rossa and ULTRAFUTURO, Daniela Oleg Liahova, Dimitar Solakov, Galentin Gatev, Ivo Bistrichki, Kalin Serapionov, Kiril Kuzmanov, Kiril Prashkov, Krassimir Terziev, Kristina Irobalieva, Luchezar Boyadjiev, Luben Kostov, Nadezhda Oleg Lyahova, Nedko Solakov, Neno Belchev, Nikola Mihov, Nina Kovacheva, Petko Dourmana, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Samuil Stoyanov, Sasho Soitzov, Stanislav Pamukchiev, Stefan Lutakov, Stella Vasileva, Svetlin Roussev, Valentin Stefanoff, Vassil Simittchiev, Velislava Gecheva, Ventsislav Zankov, Zoran Georgiev.

Against the backdrop of the turbulent political events in Bulgaria of 2013 and 2014, of protests and the emergence of a matured civil society in Bulgaria, this project is striving to provide answers to such questions as “Where are the Bulgarian intellectuals?”, “What is their role in times of transition?”, “Do they demonstrate a stance of active social engagement?”, “Can art not just reflect but cause social change as well?”